Standard Oil 1950 CO2 + CH4 + H2O = Syngas

We previously submitted report of "United States Patent 2,676,156 - Preparation of Synthesis Gas", from 1954, wherein it was seen that Standard Oil Development Company, of New Jersey and Delaware, had developed a technology wherein Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Water can be combined in order to form a synthesis gas, from which liquid hydrocarbons could be catalytically condensed.

We stated that such development rested on earlier, similar, achievements; and, herein, we present another example of those precedent Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies.

And, we must, yet again, emphasize: The Methane, and/or "natural gas", as specified, that is required in the process disclosed by this United States Patent can itself be synthesized, either from Carbon Dioxide, via processes now being, as we've reported, further refined by NASA and the US Department of Defense; or, from Coal, via multiple, US-patented technologies owned by various companies within the petroleum industry, and others.

Additional comment follows, and is inserted within, excerpts from:

"United States Patent 2,522, 468 - Production of Synthesis Gas

Date: September, 1950

Inventor: Warren Smith, LA

Assignee: Standard Oil Development Company, DE

Abstract: My invention relates to the production of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen suitably proportioned for use as a feed-gas in the synthesis of hydrocarbons.

It is a matter of record and commercial practice, particularly in countries foreign to the United States, to prepare hydrocarbons, including those boiling in the gasoline and gas oil range, by reacting a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

The usual procedure for the preparation of hydrocarbon synthesis feed-gas ... has been based on the reaction of steam with carbon ... .

(We must interject: By 1950, portentously and tellingly, and as confirmed herein through the statement's official approval by our Federal Government, "in countries foreign to the United States", it was already "commercial practice ... to prepare hydrocarbons, including ... gasoline ..., by reacting a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen" created by the "usual procedure" of reacting "steam with carbon". Sadly, more than half a century later, making "gasoline" with raw materials created by reacting "steam" with Coal, or any kind of other, potentially recycled, "carbon", remains "foreign to the United States". Why? - JtM)

What I claim is: The method of continuously forming a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen ... which consists essentially in charging a mixture of methane, steam and carbon dioxide to a reforming zone containing (a specified) catalyst (under specified conditions) ... and recovering from said zone, a product gas containing ... carbon monoxide and hydrogen."

-----------

Let's be clear: The Oil Industry and our own US Government have known for more than fifty years that Carbon Dioxide can be reacted with Methane and Water to synthesize hydrocarbons, up to and including, through a sequence of steps, "those boiling in the gasoline ... range".

The Oil Industry would have known, by the time this patent was issued, as we have fully documented in the course of our reports to the West Virginia Coal Association, that Methane can be synthesized, via the 1912 Sabatier process, from Carbon Dioxide; or, via the, by then, almost ancient practice of the Steam gasification of Coal.

And, for more than fifty years, for more than half of a century, that same US Government which, as herein, officially validated that knowledge, has allowed our economy and our environment and our citizens, especially those resident in United States Coal Country, to suffer at the hands of the international petroleum industry and their OPEC cartel cohort, and their, perhaps unwitting, partners, the environmental lobby.

Yet again: Why?

Twitter

This Little Lump of Coal: Millions of years ago, swamps covered vast areas of earth. As plants in the swamps died… https://t.co/loKGNvJLkp